Friday 29 January 2016

MOVING...MOVED!

 
I'M MOVING ON OUT!
No, no waterworks. It's not that kind of move.
 
But I am switching blogs and won't be actively updating (or updating at all) here.
If you want to continue to follow my journey to publication, hit me up HERE as author me (a.k.a. Marna Reed) makes her debut!
 
Seriously though, do I need to pass the tissues?
 
Bye for now Blogger!
xoxo Muah!

Saturday 23 January 2016

RSS Winter Writing Fes 2016 Update #1: When a new year brings new challenges...

RSS Winter Writing Festival 2016
UPDATE #1
 
http://www.rsswwf.com/
 
I almost forgot to do this post.
Not surprisingly considering this is my 1st update for 2016.
 
YAY 2016! Here's to a year of major productivity boost.
 
 
I'm not doing any (formal) book reviews this year, so the blog's going to be quiet for the next few months.
 
Right now, and the reason I'm doing this blog, is I've taken up a challenge!
That challenge is the Winter Writing Festival (2016 edition) hosted by the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood, a blog about books, from authors to readers and other writers/authors. It was originally created by a group of 2009 Golden Heart Finalists, so naturally the blog is focused on romance novels/novellas/shorts.
 
What is the festival about? (Hint: it's writing-related)
 
You know, forget it, I'll just tell you.
 
It's actually an open challenge for anything writing-related. So you could be starting the first draft of your 1st novel or fiftieth, in the middle of the copyedits for your publisher, or slogging through the initial plotting/outlining stage(s): The RSS Winter Writing Fes is for you to set a goal/goals publically, have a (friendly and super supportive!) community of published and aspiring authors cheering you on and holding you to your goal(s), and enjoying the activities interspersed throughout the 50-day challenge.
 
The challenge started January 12th and will end March 1st, with updates happening every Monday until then (here's the first week of updates).
 
I found the Writing Festival last Saturday, chickened out of signing -- and then decided that was stupid and signed up the next day, making a public goal of writing 1000/day and write daily.
 
First the writing daily helps me. Writing, like most skills, is more skill development than latent talent. Even being born a wordsmith requires you polish your natural linguistic ability. Not even a genius writer can dream up a novel in a night. Hard work is the backbone of ALL stories, and most things in general.
 
As for the 1000/day, I know I can do that much now. I've got my writing groove back; the one I lost over the end of summer through fall. What with SAD to worry about and Blue Monday recently passing I think I'm over the hump of my slump (hehe) and into greener pastures...well, actually I'm still staring at snow and slush and will be for another, oh, 3ish months, but that's not the point --
 
 
No. No, I know you probably fell asleep so here's the...
 
TL;DR version: I joined THIS writing challenge and for the remaining 37 days until March 1st, my goals are,
 
1) to write 1000/day (of whatever WIP I'm working on)
2) write daily from January 15th to March 1st (and I'm on track so far!)
 
I'll be doing my own updates every Saturday, since I started late and I'll have my own experiences to share from this 1.5 month-long challenge.
 
Until next time!